Polythread at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian with Jenny Sabin and Martin Miller

The Polythread installation was completed February 6th, 2016 at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York City as part of the 5th Triennial Design Exhibition.

Research began by looking at various iterations interested in a self-contained system tensioned by a fabric interface, where aperture size is informed by tensile and stress patterns by computational analysis.

Central District Brewing

contributed while at coXist studio 2018/ 2019

Downtown Austin, TX. Images coming soon.

Utopian Blooms in a Library

The library is Utopic, primarily driven by organizational strategies derived from temperature shifts in digital networks directly sustaining algal ecologies. Digital storage components harvest heat emitted from live algae growing within the exterior of the habitable enclosure. Algae allows for the servers (containing digital ‘books’ and information) to maintain convection as a method of cooling without the over-use of electrical energy.

The site is located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan next to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The parti cues a cathedral, allowing for the hybridizing of geometric concept.

Dynamic fluidity and undulation captures a Grand Reading Room and lobby, linking concept to the performance of the building, ultimately describing its form, directly out of precise data reflecting algal blooms. Essentially, the Grand Reading Room becomes the monumental idea of an algal bloom and collective grouping of learned visitors directly linked to literal extrapolations of healthy temperatures in algae.

Music and electromagnetic frequency puts one in a euphoric state. If a heightened state of mind came through physiological forces, one would be more well equipped to comprehend literary varietals.

The act of moving up and through niches activate physical engagement and enhance one’s euphoric sense of being.

The lit networks are visible through portions of the skin on the interior, where a euphoric presence contributes to the idea of utopia as a reflective place of learning. The networks ‘push’ heat to needed portions of the building.

For example, linear diffusers may appear in portions of the lower levels in the outdoor cafe to warm visitors on a cold day. The porosity is reflected on the ground plane in the same spacial sequence, allowing for grated drainage to collect greywater to then be filtered up through reservoirs into hydroponic systems which feed into algae beds. Reading rooms are revealed where pockets of space are formed and hung or extruded from and through the ceiling.

Remnants of the storm become linear striations of sand, water and boardwalk interlaced and woven, creating an overlap of program and interstitial circulation, blending class types and variety of social interactions. The braiding of the reprogrammed environment happens more perpendicular to its original configuration, linking ameliorative regeneration to movement and activation. The three defining characteristics of Coney Island (sand, wood and water) become dismantled and reconfigured into a more rich user experience.

A Museum for Anthropozoic Artifacts in the West Texas Desert

There is an infinite network of matter at chaotic inflations in quantum logic, blurring the boundary between the natural and the man-made. Ambiguity constructs the anatomy of a Museum, where relics of the Anthropocene are curated in contradicting realities, asking if we are responsible for unfavorable impacts on the environment or if we are less dramatically segmented within the physical mechanics of the nanoscopic.

The area of study is Marfa, TX near the Chinati Foundation.

I looked at the performance of cacti in the desert to understand what type of exterior skin system would function in the hot climate. A telescoping, adaptable membrane adapts to climate by convection, where the super-hydrophilic material swells and causes aperture opening. The opening allows for ventilation and as the absorbed aperture loses moisture through evaporation, cool air passes in and out of the skin until the apertures closes again. Congregations of similar sized apertures appear above museum exhibits, signaling view space.

To begin the process of generating formless networks, multiple data inputs are necessary. In this particular instance, existing circulation, artifact size, topographical conditions and contextual square footage forces have been translated through code abstracting a latent organization. This organizational device works as a part-to-whole relationship, meaning that if any of the data needs to be altered or updated, the network is able to adapt and morph to those constraints rather than completely reconfiguring the tool from the top-down. The figures shown describe the initial stages of deployed latent organization on the site, followed by iterations and near complete configuration.

Relics of the Anthropocene are curated in contradicting realities, asking if we are responsible for unfavorable impacts on the environment or if we are more integrated within the microscopic natural world, humans being without a say in our fate. Large exhibits are planned in the more open spaces where linkage lengths are at their longest. These are large man-made artifacts such as colonial ships, cooling towers or coal-powered trains. The smaller counterpoint exhibits happen inside the circulation corridors, and are artifacts relating to the man-made artifacts. These items may be needed by or be a result of the larger items, such as coal near a train, a human skull near a cooling tower or a musket near a colonial ship.

Cornell University thesis advisors: Jenny Sabin, Sasa Zivkovic

Beijing National Zoo Masterplan

Papeterie à Nanterre

Team: Yuriy Chernets, Alex Lima, Charles Cupples.

Over a period of time, Nanterre University would be in need of expansion due to growth. Abandoned warehouses serve as a new urban park and campus center, providing art and science hubs. The planning of the expansion provides nearby neighborhoods with better public connectivity and is organized by a logic reminiscent of the rebellious vitality during the 60’s in Nanterre, a spirit of barricades in the 1800s.

4,000 ft. length of scaffolding is inserted into the urban fabric creating a sky bridge linking the University to the other side of the river. The temporary structure follows the profile of the train line. One large, simple move gestures toward the vacant paper mill factory asking its future for development. The scaffolding plays with the idea that it could perhaps use itself in the future for reconstruction of the site. If ten years pass before rehabilitation, the framework will harness natural vegetation to expand vertically. New ways of understanding future phases may take place at odd hours on the levels of scaffolding.

There are four primary access points connecting the University, paper mill factory, island and other side of the river near Houilles. The sectional leveling of the installation recalls the layering of historical Paris and questions permanence vs. temporality and the appropriateness of new construction. The site could become a permanent ruin as the scaffolding may suggest a device for spectatorship.

After the initial phasing of temporary interactions, we parceled the land to be developed uniquely as aspects of the University campus. We looked at very pragmatic University functions such as bookstores, cafes, administration, student centers, etc. You inhabit space by walking through a vegetated park into a public plaza where the program is insulated by earth. The demolished buildings left a blue print for areas in the garden within an undulating ground plane which allows for water to flow to staging arenas, transplanting wild seeds through a naturally occurring maintenance.

Over time, water will push natural seeds down and through sensitively designed valleys, allowing for natural growth with minimal maintenance.

Deep Ellum Culinary School

The culinary school of Deep Ellum sits in an urban dichotomy of rich culture maintained as an arts district. The city east of highway 75 is separated from downtown by a change in scale and person. The knights of pithius building is protected by federal historic preservation laws, being one of the oldest buildings in Deep Ellum, established in the late 1890s. It is currently abandoned and will serve as a public entrance to the school and a dormitory for students or boutique hotel on the lower levels for guests.

Planting schedules explain the instrumentation of implementing the sun’s positioning as a means of projecting seasonal vegetable grow times. The harvested goods are pervasive to local climate and used in the restaurant/ culinary school. The sun’s inscription occurs inside of a large wine vault reception chamber.

Grey-water tanks store rain water to be deposited into the soil during dry seasons via the cantilever. The sundial room and wine vault allows for indirect lighting, and the wine is stored along a vertical shaft which is well-insulated from Texas summer.

It is suggested the facade panels are broken into repetitive pieces of 4 variations in order to maximize efficiency and deploy in multiple applications.

University of Texas, Arlington design studio. Critic: Thad Reeves

Studies

Relics of spatial & performative speculation led to a thesis reminiscent of Haeckel’s organisms. Implementing a formless network frames the irony of cosmic destruction.

Material

Charles Cupples, Art in the Modern World, Materiality, Cornell University 2014, blogs.cornell.edu

Materiality is physical matter and the applied use of that matter to the construction of buildings. The conceptual theory of this application is important because of the many materials available for construction and what it says, means or philosophically suggests in its spatial definition to the social and biological science of anthropology. A material can be more successful in translating representational logics of what defines space or how structural elements are resolved through the physical properties of how it reflects light and shadow, for instance. Ephemerality is a current theoretical discourse simply put, and the sustainability of continuously altered implementations to solve small scale social problems in a city are smarter than suggesting the use of heavily carbon-footprinted materials, which reflect a poor understanding of the impact we have on the environment. Architectural concepts like the use of stereotomy to imply extraction from the ground plane through the use of environmentally ineffective materials change our world negatively, and effectiveness is exchanged for the positive, yet low yielding impact of an intellectual argument accessible to only a few highly educated groups of people. Rejection of buildings are partially contributed to the poor effectiveness of selecting a material which contextually has little significance to the history or understanding of a culture in which the building has been constructed, where familiarity and efficiency may produce better planning by use of ubiquity or plentiful ubiquitous material.

Wiki defines materiality within varied degrees of classifications, which may include virtual connotations of matter in regard to its contextual argument of relevance. The material nature of relevant discussion with lets say, evidential logic builds a stronger foundation. For example, to say there is a drive to make industry less destructive and therefore we should begin research into alternative materials such as biodegradable cyanobacteria lacks materiality not because it lacks relevance to the discussion of eco-effectiveness, but lacks evidence of why further research is necessary. Materiality of relevance needs another component in this case. To make an effective argument for the advancement of technological practices in material production, we could say the power of population is superior to the power of Earth’s resilience. There is plenty of data to reference. Further, obvious environmentalism (protesting of deforestation, mining destruction, etc.) is now a popular belief and more specifically researched scientific data is needed in order to have Materiality. The expensiveness of down cycling (recycling materials with the inevitability of degradation and the deterioration of material properties due to the lack of technology to separate polymer from automotive metals, for instance) is no longer useful. Other creative techniques used by big business to imply change through clever marketing are ineffective modes of operation in terms of their disturbances. The use of a new methodology from the ground-up, so to speak, is needed in order for a sufficient material to emerge with valid materiality.

Lyotard suggests that materiality is no longer “matter” or the physicality of its subatomic particles, but that material is composed of packets of energy. Without a proper microscope or theory yet to be invented, it is hard to be sure exactly the difference between matter and energy. There are obviously large amounts energy that may be released by a small amount of matter, but there is no certainty whether or not matter is condensed energy, however energy is able to be converted to matter. Perhaps just as the speed of light is relative to the speed and distance of the observer, matter and/ or energy is too close or too far to currently be observed properly, and yet light is both a particle and a wave. Within a certain degree of classification, materiality in terms of physicality could be conceptually thought of as a “packet of energy” when considering its Material relevance (“packet of energy” meaning a source for unidentifiable information).

Lyotard also implies this new idea of energy deals with the rebellious nature of avoiding classification, which would destroy its primary meaning. One motive of his interpretation is linked to the desire to determine a justification for the fracturing of modernism into post-modernism, by virtue of solidarity and uniqueness for the ‘sake of art.’ Attaining a philosophical point of view through acknowledging the affect of having a controversial scientific stance and not the cause of the theoretical discourse shows the aesthetic side of his intention and does not fully investigate the intricacies of advanced quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is an illogical method for proclaiming the physical nature of materiality. This does not mean it lacks relevantmateriality because there was a need to create art outside of the political, socio-economical systems that were in place previously. In ‘Les Immateriaux,’ a new definition of art was considered where the ephemeral properties of material used were displayed not by the materiality of the material, but by the juxtaposition of technology as a means for understanding various lighting techniques. The art was the performance of shifting people in a shifting environment.

With the concept of fracturing and the Leyotardesque defining of post-modernism in art, I scanned broken discs while shaking the scanner chaotically. The discs are physically moved during the scanning process, in order to construct a dimension of virtuality in the time signature. The bed of the scanner fills sequentially free of compositional logic allowing the overlays to roam through a natural process of disorder, assuming the juxtaposition of movement in a synthetic material is unnatural. Movement is natural, but synthetic technology is not, however the movement of a synthetic material by a human hand is inherently super-unnatural. The result is a short movie of compiled matter incomprehensible by the speed of fracturing, degradation of form and scaled abstractions nonrepresentational of political motivation. The dichotomy between technology and humanity begin to merge out of an ironically satirical premise.

Fish Processing Center of Jugovinil

Split, Croatia

An abandoned industrial waterfront is framed by a disparate urban form which establishes a new system of order to be fastened into the current city framework. Organizational logic is stitched into a varied and fluctuating city, while the city’s fluctuations happen within the site as a theatrical performance framed by building elements.

The program has been separated where each building is strategically located next to a block which serves as its counter, juxtaposes, or has some relationship to it. Each framed view is different from the next, where performance of use is framed through the backdrop of the ocean (as our past, present and future).

The narrative of passage begins at the research institute where one walks under the water in buried translucent circulation chambers, allowing the experience of observing wild fish specimen only to emerge into the destructive loading platforms of the processing center where fish meet the affects of capitalism.

Fields of elevated olive groves are fueled by waste otherwise discarded as a missed opporunity for recovery. Groves are elevated as trellis conditions acting as nodal signifiers to patrons interested in discovering dystopian futures alloted by greed, overfishing and the uneducated performances of poorly executed development.

Plastic and metal material are framed in octagonal collectors angled toward the ocean in hopes that you will reference the future through our manipulation of resources.

Blocks of program are enclosed and separated linearly, perpendicular to the sea front, defining outdoor courtyards between each building and framing views toward the Adriatic. The shift of the grid informs what happens on the ground plane, where patches of research pools, planters and harbors reference the organizational grids of the building and Roman grid. This habitable landscape is productive while performing as a park, outdoor seating for the restaurant and loading dock. The harbors dissolve into the landscape.

Cornell University studio critics: Frano Violich, Sasa Zivkovic

Photography: Charles Cupples

Austin Cheese Co.

contributed while at coXist studio 2018

Barge

Near the Kornati Islands in Croatia, a barge floats the currents of the Adriatic, providing a shifting landscape for restaurant patrons looking for an adventurous dining experience.

An extensive array of umbrella designation options lie within the user’s desire to manipulate their environment directly, by reconfiguring the organization type specified by variance in ‘pod type,’ or spatial definers as movable umbrella bases.